Bent: Let me fire Spurs up the league alongside Pavlyuchenko

Darren Bent has vowed to form a prolific partnership with Roman Pavlyuchenko and dismissed as 'silly' ex-boss Juande Ramos ’s refusal to play them together in attack for Tottenham.

Bent set up substitute Pavlyuchenko’s stoppage-time winner in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool and poured scorn on the idea that the pair are too similar to operate in tandem.

New Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has shown faith in Bent and Pavlyuchenko since his arrival, in stark contrast to the sacked Ramos, whose assistant Gus Poyet claimed in September that it was 'difficult for them to play together'.

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Bent said: 'With time, the partnership will blossom. It was a bit of a silly thing to say [that we couldn’t play together] considering I was already here when Roman was signed for £14million.

'I think that, ideally, Harry wants to play 4-4-2, so if he can get the pair of us working together.

“It can only help the team. He has used us in tandem in training.'

Redknapp, who is likely to attempt to bring back Jermain Defoe to White Hart Lane from Portsmouth in January, is confident Bent and Pavlyuchenko have the makings of an effective front line, even though they cannot play together in the UEFA Cup on Thursday against Dinamo Zagreb because the Russian is cup-tied.

Both players have scored twice in Redknapp’s three matches in charge, and the 61-year-old said: 'It would be strange to pay £16.5m for Bent and then £14m for Pavlyuchenko and then realise they can’t play together.

Inspirational: Redknapp's Spurs regin has yielded seven points from a possible nine - and two goals apiece for Bent and Pavlyuchenko

'That’s strange to me. They have to play together. After them, there is only Fraizer Campbell, who is on loan from Manchester United and looks like a good prospect.

'They are the only three strikers, so they have to make it work.'

Bent added that Spurs, who experienced the worst start to a League season in their history before Ramos was sacked nine days ago, had hit rock bottom before the Spaniard’s departure.

The 24-year-old striker, who has scored six goals this season, revealed that Ramos’s inability to become fluent in English had hindered him greatly.

'Harry can talk to people one to one and have a proper conversation, so you know what he is talking about, whereas with Juande and [speaking] Spanish, it was a bit hard,' Bent admitted.

'At one stage the training ground was a horrible place to be. Everyone was down, there was no team morale but since Harry has come in, everyone has had a new lease of life,and that has shown in the performances.'

Spurs followed up last weekend’s 2-0 victory over Bolton and the incredible 4-4 draw against Arsenal in midweek, by condemning Liverpool to their first defeat of the season, and the memory of Ramos seemed a lifetime away.

After Dirk Kuyt, set up by former Spurs striker Robbie Keane on his return to White Hart Lane, had fired them into a third-minute lead, Rafael Benitez’s team took total control.

It would be difficult to find a better-organised side and Spurs simply could not get the ball off the rampant Reds before half-time.

Unsurprisingly, Redknapp made two changes for the second half, sending on Pavlyuchenko and Alan Hutton for Jamie O’Hara and Benoit Assou-Ekotto. He switched to a 4-4-2 formation, with playmaker Luka Modric on the left and Pavlyuchenko alongside Bent in attack — and the change worked perfectly as an own goal from Jamie Carragher and Pavlyuchenko’s late winner gave Spurs all three points.

As he prepares for his team’s next two challenges, against Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday and at Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday, it will not have escaped Redknapp’s attention that seven of Spurs’ nine points this season have come in matches against Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.

It is a statistic which suggests his players are not intimidated by the top clubs in the division and that they believe they belong in such company.

Add this new-found self-belief to the remarkable rub of the green Spurs enjoyed against Liverpool, and it easy to see why the cockerel is crowing again.